We're there, Kid
by Ms-Author01
Summary: Tony wrapped his arms around the kid who had crashed into his chest with a broken whisper of ark'. His shoulders shook under Tony's hands as he took shuddering breaths, crying. Tony tightened his hold, what could have happened to the kid in the last few hours? Peter finds himself back in time before everything happened. Somehow it is too much and not enough at the same time.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

* * *

When Peter fell asleep four months after the blip, it was to the sound of May arguing with the landlady again. These days it seemed like that was all that everyone did, argue. Whether it was about ownership of apartments and security deposits, which May was currently arguing about, or something as simple as which seat belonged to whom in school.

As for Peter, Peter didn't bother to argue with anyone. So what if he had to be assigned a new locker and had to sit with a new class, these days he could barely bring himself to bother about such things. There were greater things that plagued his nights and haunted his dreams. Thoughts and nightmares, things that could've been done, things that could change the outcome of what had happened.

Wishes and tears.

That's what Peter fell asleep to. Confusion and shock are what he woke up to. His head snapped up as someone cleared their throat, he could hear suppressed laughter all around.

" , is my lecture interrupting your nap time?" , Miss Warren raised an eyebrow, her hands were on her hips. An unimpressed look was directed towards him.

Peter quickly sat up with mumbled apologies from where he was sleeping on his desk. Miss Warren took a deep breath then turned back towards the board continuing her explanation about one thing or another. Peter gave a stray thought to how weird it was to be on the other end of Miss Warren's disappointed look, it was usually Flash who received it.

Then he remembered that Miss Warren left school five years ago after her family was snapped away and didn't return after the blip and the class he was sitting in was no longer his. Familiar faces surrounded him, faces that had aged five years the last time he had looked into them.

Ned was looking at him with a worried look, Flash was smirking, MJ looked thoroughly uninterested. Peter felt the breath stuck in his throat.

This was his class before everything. Before the snap, before the blip, before everything, before died. !

Peter stood up with a thud bringing everyone's attention to himself.

"M-Miss Warren, I don't feel very good. May I go to the nurse?"

His face must have shown something that confirmed his statement maybe his panic or painful hope cause Miss Warren just nodded. Peter refused to think over what his being here might mean or how this could've happened, the only thing in his mind was the urgency to get out of school, to go...somewhere, leave, see, understand. The time for panicking was later, he could determine if he was dreaming later he just needed to leave now.

Peter ran out of the room faster than was probably normal and he was sure to be the topic of discussion but it didn't matter. He climbed out of the nearest exit not even bothering to pretend to go to the nurse.

One breath. Two. He swung away.

* * *

Peter didn't stop until he was standing before the Avengers compound. The walls stood upright, there was a hustle. People walking by, working. It was still a place of hope, of the future, not a graveyard of bad memories and loss.

He walked in as if in a trance, looking around with an unseeing gaze, trying to make himself believe this was real. He could almost see the scene of the battle superimposed on that of this relatively normal building. A few people bumped into him, some saying a 'hello' when they recognized him. It didn't take long before he was crossing over to the private portion, standing near the elevator that leads down to the lab.

He couldn't bring himself to walk into the elevator. Because if he wasn't there if he wasn't down there working away on something, humming along to some old song that Peter also loved but teased him about, if he wasn't there it would break this dream, this dream or fantasy or whatever this is would be for nothing.

Peter closed his eyes, took a deep breath, gathered whatever remained of his courage and stepped in.

FRIDAY greeted him, the doors closed.

* * *

Tony was on a binge, he had been working on Rhodey's braces for over 6 hours when FRIDAY announced Peter's arrival and even though he had no real sense of time down in the lab, he did know that the kid wasn't supposed to be there for at least a few more hours.

Peter had checked in with him before school and according to his calculations, he should've been done with the modifications on the braces when the kid came which meant the kid was early.

Tony wiped his hands off with the towel that was laying by and signaled FRIDAY to save the modifications. He was almost done with the modification to the joints which would allow for better support of Rhodey's spine, he could finish it after the kid was gone. He had promised Peter that they would work on his suit today, He wouldn't admit it but he enjoyed having the kid around more, especially with his high energy and enthusiasm about anything they did together.

Tony heard the kid come in and stop. Tony rolled his eyes making a point to remind Peter that he didn't need permission to come to the lab, at least not this one. He never did anything dangerous in this part of the lab anyways.

He turned around with a smile, stilling when he saw the kid. Peter looked...shocked, scared, in disbelief. Tony didn't know how to describe it.

"Kid, You okay?"

Peter looked pale under the lab lighting, his eyes wide and arms wrapped around his middle. Before Tony could say anything, the kid rushed forward slamming against Tony making them both stumbled. Tony grabbed onto the kid and steadied both of them.

"Pete?"

There was no answer, Tony wrapped his arms around the kid who had barrelled into his chest with a broken whisper of ' '. He almost made a joke about the kid's obsession with trying to hug him but stopped when he realized something that sent a chill down his spine.

The kid was crying.

His shoulders shook under Tony's hands as he took shuddering breaths, a wet spot formed on Tony's T-Shirt. The kid was mumbling something between suppressed sobs and

"I'm so sorry, . I-I-Sorry-Sorry-"

Tony tightened his hold, worry gripping his heart. What could have happened to the kid in the last few hours to do this?

* * *

**I have no idea what to say. This scene refused to leave me alone. Its been plaguing me since last night so I wrote it out and well...posted it. I literally finished writing it about five minutes ago and decided to post it on a whim. Let me know if you'd like to see more of this story? I have a vague plot in my head, I might just end up writing it just to get it out of my mind. Did you get where the title's from? As always, Thanks for /**

**-Marey**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

* * *

"You were gone, we lost you-I lost you. You were gone-"

The tears had stopped, thankfully, so had the violent sobs but Peter still clung to his mentor and Tony didn't bother to push him away. Somehow this felt more than some trivial issue or teenage angst, not that Peter had much of that either.

The kid kept repeating himself, sometimes apologizing, sometimes telling him not to go. It was clear that the kid needed the comfort so Tony let him have it, he let Peter wear himself out until it was safe to get him out of whatever headspace he had created for himself. He so wasn't equipped to handle this, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to try his hardest anyway.

"Its okay kid, You're okay. Breathe with me, Pete. Come on, in and out. That's it,"

It was clear that the kid had been on the verge of a panic attack when he came in and Tony tried not to say anything that might push him over the edge.

"Kid I'm not following you, You're gonna have to catch me up," Tony said when Peter seemed to have calmed down a bit, his hand still moved up and down the kid's back in a gentle touch, "Did you have a nightmare? Is that what caused this? " He kept his voice low, ignoring the pain in his back from standing so long.

"You were gone," Peter repeated like a broken toy, pulling away to look at Tony with bloodshot eyes. Tear tracks glinted in the light, Peter didn't wipe them away, too focused on looking at Tony as if Tony would disappear if he so much as blinked.

" . See I'm here now. I'm right here kiddo. Not going anywhere," Tony rested both his hands on Peter's shoulders holding him lightly, grounding him.

"You won't go?" Peter sounded so much younger than his age that it sent a spike of pain through Tony.

Tony shook his head in answer, some of the tension left Peter's shoulders.

"You won't go," Peter said to himself as if trying to make himself believe it, "But you did." He whispered in the end, lowering his head looking down at the ground.

Tony moved his hand to Peter's neck, tilting his head and making him look at Tony.

"I am not going anywhere, Kid. I promise. Whatever you saw, or you think you saw must have been a nightmare. Trust me, I get plenty of them myself."

"A nightmare," Peter breathed out," It didn't feel like it." His eyes ran over Tony's face as if he was trying to memorize it.

Tony's mind flashed back to glowing hands, red haze and desperation. Surely it wasn't-She couldn't be-She wasn't here, no reason for her to go after the kid. There was a moment of silence, then Peter seemed to have pulled himself out of whatever was bothering him. Tony could visibly see him trying to pull himself back together.

"I'm fine ," Peter quickly said, stepping away and wiping his face pretending like it wasn't the last thing he wanted to do at that moment, but his body language betrayed him, "Its nothing,"

Tony stepped forward opening his mouth to tell that kid that it was okay, that he had nothing to apologize for, but the kid was already moving away.

"I am sorry, uh, I shouldn't have bothered you. I shouldn't have come here. I am just gonna...leave." and with that, he ran out of the lab.

Tony stared at the door for a second before snapping out of whatever stupor he was left in,

"FRIDAY, What just happened?"

_"Boss, I do believe proceeded to have an emotional breakdown in your lab before running away._

Tony closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose, "Yeah, that's what I thought," He could still feel the wet spot on his chest, the desperation in the kid's eyes. It bothered him more than he thought it would.

"FRIDAY, patch me through to Black kitty will you?"

_"Boss?" _

"I need to confirm that Ca-Rogers and his gang was nowhere near the kid and while you're at it keep an eye on the kid, make sure he reaches home safely," Going now after the kid would only make him feel trapped, which is the last thing he wanted.

He did make a note to call May tomorrow to have the kid over, he couldn't get over how fragile Pete looked.

_"Of course boss,"_

* * *

Peter left the compound as fast as he could, he kept swinging until he reached home. To May, to a place that still had shadows of the people that lived there in the years both of them were gone.

It was becoming difficult to think, even swinging was different, there were buildings where they shouldn't be (they were most probably destroyed during the second invasion of Newyork) and buildings that he remembered from the past three months were no longer there.

He swallowed down the panic and climbed into his bedroom through the window, stopping the moment he entered. It was just the way he remembered, from before. There were no crayon marks on the walls, his posters were still there, the bunk bed, the books, everything was where it should have been, where it wasn't in the future (or was it the past?). A lot of his stuff had gone missing before rest was put in a storage unit by when he came back from space.

A shiver went down Peter's spine, was all this really happening or was it some sort of cruel convoluted dream? Peter closed the door, sitting down on the bed.

-Pepper had told him everything had done to save everyone, to save him and one thing was clear, if he was in the past he needed to be careful.

He needed to be careful and he-he needed to do whatever it took to make sure things didn't end the same way. To make sure Morgan (when she was born) wouldn't have to lose her father, to make sure that he didn't-lose his mentor that is, not father, mentor.

Peter closed his eyes and curled up on the bed.

_Whatever it takes._

* * *

I was blown away by the response. Thanks, everyone, hope you enjoy this chapter. It was the same drill as before, posting this right after writing *Shrug* No beta, so if there are any mistakes feel free to point me out,

-Marey


End file.
